English
as "this is the base, this is the object." Therefore, ignorance is called a coverer of these. Just as it covers the nature of bases and objects, so too, it covers the dependent origination of ignorance and so on, and the dependently arisen nature of old age and death and so on. Therefore, it should be understood as covering both dependent origination and what is dependently arisen. The *saṅkhārā* that come by the taking of the word *saṅkhāra* are the *saṅkhārā* that come by the word *saṅkhāra*. Although the *saṅkhārā* conditioned by ignorance also come by the word *saṅkhāra*, yet they are stated separately as primary in this teaching. Therefore, in "of two kinds," referring to the volitional formations that come by the word *saṅkhāra*, even what is stated there should be excluded, and the *saṅkhārā* that come by the word *saṅkhāra* should be applied. Or, the whole group is called "the *saṅkhārā* that come by the word *saṅkhāra*." And a part of that, in the sense of what is to be explained here, is "the *saṅkhārā* conditioned by ignorance." Therefore, what is explained... It should be understood that there are two kinds by way of comprehending all things. First, it is said that the verbal formation ceases, and so on. Thoughts, investigations, in-breaths, out-breaths, perceptions, feelings, verbal formations, and so on, are mentioned. Not the bodily volitions, and so on, mentioned in the ignorance-formations. "He trembles" means he thirsts. "It becomes" is said referring to rebirth-existence. "It causes to become" means kamma-existence. The falling away of aggregates is death. It is said, "they die by this." "Painful feeling is suffering at arising, suffering at persisting" (MN 1.465) means it pierces in two ways. "Trouble" means weariness and despair. The word 'kevala' is a term for 'unmixed', as in "the unmixed rice-fields." And it is a term for 'entire', as in "the entire Anga and Magadha." Therefore, it conveys meaning in both ways. Here, 'unmixed' means devoid of pleasure. For there is nothing here that is devoid of arising and passing away. Associated with that, or it deludes a person, thus it has the function of deluding. Becoming a covering for the nature of the object, it is grasped, thus it has the manifestation of covering. "From the arising of taints, there is the arising of ignorance" (MN 1.103), thus it has the proximate cause of taints. They strive for the generation of rebirth-linking, they make an effort, thus they have the function of striving. Or striving is accumulation. It proceeds as a forerunner of mind-and-matter, thus it has the function of a forerunner. Becoming a connection with the previous existence, it is grasped, thus it has the manifestation of rebirth-linking. It is associated with consciousness, thus it has the function of association. Due to the absence of mutual association, it disperses matter, thus it has the function of dispersing. And having done so, when rice grains, and so on, are ground, they scatter, becoming powder. Since mind sometimes has the nature of wholesome, and so on, for the purpose of distinguishing it from that, it is said to have the "manifestation of indeterminacy." As in "unconscious are indeterminate" here, non-objectivity or indeterminacy should be seen. The characteristic of sense-base is the characteristic of connection, or the characteristic of extending to the coming-in (of results). The state of being a cause for seeing, and so on, is the function of seeing, and so on. Due to the undesirable nature of equanimity as unwholesome result, and due to the desirable nature of the other (feelings) by suffering. Being gathered by happiness, it is called 'manifesting as happiness and suffering'. Craving, being the origin of suffering, has the characteristic of a cause. By the saying 'delighting here and there', its flavor is delight. The dissatisfaction of the mind or person with forms and so on, being taken, manifests as dissatisfaction. Becoming the strengthening of craving, it is clinging to sensual pleasures; the rest, becoming views, manifest as the strengthening of craving and views. The characteristics and so on of existence should be connected according to kamma and rebirth-existence. By the word 'ādi' (etc.), the state of understanding and so on is taken. Ignorance regarding suffering and so on is non-practice; perversions of beauty and so on in the unbeautiful are wrong practice. Or, non-practice is dissociated from views; wrong practice is associated with views. Not only ignorance has six doors and six objects, but also other immaterial phenomena among the dependent origination factors, thus it is said 'in all'. It is said that the mind-base is not within the range of both. For immaterial phenomena, there is no nearness or farness in terms of location, due to their formlessness; therefore, the object of the mind-base is not said to be reached or not reached by the mind-base. When there is a possibility of many factors due to the existence of sorrow and so on, the arrangement of the factors as 'only twelve' should be understood. For sorrow and so on are not stated as factors, but they are stated to show the cause, ignorance, as the root factor, by means of the result. For they arise in the ignorant person afflicted by old age and death, thus the causality of old age and death for sorrow and so on is stated. And in the Sutta 'afflicted by bodily painful feeling', suffering, which is a sign of old age and death, is included, thus it is stated as a proof for those respective signs. But since a single summary of sorrow and so on is made with old age and death, their conditionality on birth is appropriate. For if old age and death were the condition, a single summary of ignorance would have to be made; but from birth arise old age and death, and sorrow and so on. There, old age and death are definitely factors. taken. But sorrow and the like, being absent in existence of form and so on, are not invariable, they are taken merely as a manifest result to illustrate ignorance. Thus, when there is birth in the future, ignorance, being the cause of rebirth thereafter, is shown, and so the unbroken continuity of the wheel of existence is shown. And the Sutta, that ignorance is the cause of sorrow and the like, should be seen as establishing this very meaning, not merely that sorrow and the like are the signs of old age and death for the fool. For by the saying, “The uninstructed ordinary person,” it is shown that ignorance is the cause of sorrow and the like, and not that only the sign of old age and death is suffering. The explanation of the summary section is finished. Explanation of the section on Ignorance 226. “Ignorance is the cause of formations,” it is said. By this, the reason for formations needing to be defined is shown, because ignorance is mentioned as a qualifier and formations as primary. A father is spoken of as “Sāma is tall, Mitta is short, Datta is fair.” The essence to be tasted, to be penetrated, is rasa. One’s own essence is sarasa. The true essence is yāthāvasarasa. That, being what is to be characterized, is a characteristic, thus, the characteristic of true essence. “And what, monks, is ignorance? Ignorance of suffering,” and so on, in the Sutta, only four are mentioned, thus he says, “according to the Suttanta method.” But in the section on exposition, and so on, the same ignorance spoken of here in four places is explained in the section on exposition in eight places by its function, by twenty-five terms, and by its characteristic. Thus, he makes it clear by way of explaining its meaning. For the Abhidhamma method is the division of what is to be divided without omission. That in which it arises is jāti, the place of arising. Although ignorance does not make an object in the path of cessation, yet, for one who wishes to know them, it is said to arise there by way of concealing them and by way of being the cause for grasping the path of cessation in the paths of non-cessation. Thus, these too are places of arising for ignorance, for others, the object. by its nature of being without. Just as the robes and ploughs of the Sangha’s oxen and so on, so too is the nature of unknowing, which dispels ignorance, which makes blind to the objects of suffering and so on, and greed and so on, of other white things and so on, to be seen as the characteristic. “For the sake of the meaning” means the fruit. Indeed, the repeated word is for the purpose of making manifest the distinct clarity of all meanings. Or, meaning itself is meaning, “for the sake of the meaning” is to show the unperverted nature of the meaning, it specifies meaning by meaning itself. For knowledge does not take what is not meaning as meaning. Thus, it should be understood in “cause and cause” as well. “That aspect” means the aspect of “for the sake of the meaning” and so on. “Having grasped” means having entered into the mind, or having made it grasped by the mind or by a person. Re-examination after penetration is retrospection. The state of a fool, whose characteristic is ill-conceived thoughts and so on, is foolishness. “Understands” means understands in various ways. Strong delusion is infatuation. Complete delusion is confusion. “Being an object of suffering” means by being an object of suffering, or the phenomena associated with it, which are objects of suffering, by ignorance covering them, that is their state, thus “being an object of suffering.” Or, the object itself is objectivity, suffering is its objectivity, thus “being an object of suffering.” Because of its difficulty to see, it is profound, not by nature. Therefore, ignorance arises with it as its object. The intention is that for others, because of their natural profundity, it does not arise with them as objects. Furthermore, it shows the even greater profundity of cessation than the path, because the path has a conditioned nature. The explanation of the term “ignorance” is finished.